Environmentally Responsible People Are Happy People

Here’s a bar chart of the grid-mix in the OECD countries.

Note the correspondence between the nations at the top of the graph and those at the top of the world happiness rankings. The seven happiest countries, in order, are Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

Various theories could be posited here as to the reason.  Perhaps these nations simply do everything right.  They also have very little crime, and have the pandemic more or less under control.

Another idea derives from a modern American philosopher who said, “Clean hands make a happy life,” meaning, of course, that people who do rotten things to one another are generally miserable human beings.

Greed, criminality, and environmental degradation are not the things of which happiness is made.  Conversely, doing right by all the world’s people puts a smile on one’s face.